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Former Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus (left), and Justices David Baker (center) and Michael Streit, who were ousted by Iowa voters in November 2010 after declaring a same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, will receive the JFK Library's Profiles in Courage Award.
John Gaps III/KCCI,CBS/AP Photo

(CBS/AP) BOSTON - President John F. Kennedy's only surviving child is celebrating what would have been his 95th birthday this month by honoring three Iowa judges who were ousted after the court unanimously decided to legalize same-sex marriages.

Caroline Kennedy will also recognize the U.S. ambassador to Syria who risked his life to support opponents of President Basher Assad's regime.

Kennedy heads the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, which promotes the late president's memory and legacy. She is set to present the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award on Monday to former Iowa Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and justices David Baker and Michael Streit, all of whom were pushed off the bench in a 2010 retention vote that capped a contentious campaign.

The three judges will receive a sterling silver ship's lantern symbolizing a beacon of hope. The award, which was designed by Kennedy's husband, Edwin Schlossberg, and crafted by Tiffany & Co., resembles one belonging to the U.S. Navy's oldest commissioned warship, the USS Constitution, or "Old Ironsides."

U.S. Ambassador in Syria Robert Ford, pictured covering his nose during a visit to a mass grave, in Jisr el-Shughour, Syria in June 2011, will also receive a Profiles in Courage Award for supporting peaceful protesters in the face of a crackdown by the Assad regime.

AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi, File

Ternus, Baker and Streit were among seven justices who unanimously decided in 2009 that an Iowa law restricting marriage to a man and a woman violated the state's constitution. Conservative groups and other gay marriage foes spent about $1 million on a political campaign to oust the judges, who chose not to raise money or campaign themselves to avoid dragging the judiciary into politics.

"The three judges are interesting and courageous on many levels," Kennedy told The Associated Press. "... Like many of the people who get this award, they don't consider that they are doing anything particularly courageous, they just feel they're doing what's right, they're doing their job."

Kennedy, who is a lawyer, said the three "knew when they were writing this decision that it was gonna be a pioneering decision and a landmark decision and would face a lot of popular opposition. They also were following very carefully the Iowa constitution and the rights that it gives to its citizens."

This year's Profile in Courage Award also highlights the dangers of politicizing the judiciary, which is supposed to be an independent branch that protects the civil rights of all Americans. The danger is particularly pronounced in areas where state and county judges spend growing amounts of money to get elected or fend off electoral challenges sponsored by groups promoting narrow agendas, she said.

The developing trend could eliminate an independent judiciary and taint the entire democratic system, Kennedy said.

"People aren't so much aware of it, but it's happening in judicial races much more than it ever did before, on the local level and even further up," Kennedy said. "States appoint their judges and elect their judges differently, so it's a harder thing to track  but I think, just as we are seeing ... increased amounts of money in legislative races, now we are getting to see it in the judiciary where it has a much more dangerous effect because those are not supposed to be politicized races."

Bob Vander Plaats, a Sioux City businessman and former Republican candidate for governor, led efforts to oust the three judges, arguing that being a servant of the law "doesn't give the Iowa Supreme Court the authority to legislate from the bench, execute from the bench or attempt to amend the Constitution."

The honor comes as same-sex marriage again becomes a hot political topic, with North Carolina voters set to decide Tuesday on a constitutional amendment that would define marriage between one man and woman as the only domestic legal union recognizable by law, thereby outlawing not only same-sex civil unions but heterosexual civil unions as well.

The issue has also jumped to the national stage, with Vice President Joe Biden's comments on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, in which he stated he was "absolutely comfortable" with the idea of same-sex marriage and that homosexuals should be entitled to the same civil rights in domestic unions as heterosexuals - a position seconded Monday morning by Education Secretary Arne Duncan on MSNBC.

Monday's ceremony at the JFK Library and Museum will also honor U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford for ignoring repeated threats to his life and traveling around Syria to encourage and support peaceful protesters targeted by Assad's brutal crackdown.

The protests and the ensuing crackdown spawned military defections, an armed rebellion, assassinations of government and military officials, massacres of civilians and international condemnation. A truce set to begin on April 12 has failed to stop the bloodshed, raising fears that Syria is degenerating into civil war.